


Chaos Theory

by mathonwys



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Gen, Natural Disasters, OC-centric, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-11-06 13:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11036799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathonwys/pseuds/mathonwys
Summary: When it comes to adventure, Tide Sanglo would much rather stay home. Then the sky opens up over Station Square, a mysterious kid shows up on her doorstep, and the entire multiverse is plunged into peril... and she's right in the middle of the chaos. Time to count down to mayhem. (OC-centric, rated T for strong language)(Originally posted on Fanfiction.net 12/3/2013 under pseudonym "Leontids")





	1. Precious Little Life

**Author's Note:**

> _Disclaimer: The Sonic the Hedgehog setting belongs to SEGA, not me. All characters in this story not belonging to SEGA, however, belong to me unless stated otherwise in their intro chapter.  
>  Yeah it's an OC fic, in case the description didn't clue you in. Sorry. I don't think the canon characters are going to show up at all in this one._

The bus slowed to a stop and the doors opened with a hiss of hydraulics. A Mobian fox stepped onto the curb amongst the rest of the crowd and held a gloved hand over her mouth to muffle her yawn. The cool fall breeze ruffled at her silver fur and blue ponytail; despite the changing season, she'd declined sweaters and jackets in favor of a green tanktop and dark blue sweatpants. Ah well, she was out of her work uniform, and that was all she cared about as she trudged along the sidewalk. She squinted with her mismatched eyes- one green, the other violet- at her watch. It was five-thirty, same as always. Her roommate would already be home from whatever she usually did during the weekdays, they'd both crash on the couch and watch old movies while she tried not to fall asleep, and then the next morning it was up at six AM again on the dot.

...Or she could walk right into her as she turned a corner. Her startled yelp was met with a flurry of cusswords as the taller Mobian dropped the brown grocery bags; the fox winced as she hoped that nothing breakable was being brought home this time before bending over to help. The cat was still cussing up a storm, and seemed oblivious to the stares and glares the two were getting.

"-hell, eggs're gonna be completely fuckin' shattered and can't do shit about it, gonna get my tail rammed up my ass if Tide finds out I did it aga-"

"Caracal?"

Caracal stood up ramrod straight and stared down at her. "...Aw fuck. Hi, Tide."

Tide couldn't help but laugh as she took one of the bags from her roommate's arms. "What was that about me ramming your tail up your butt?" She laughed again at the cat's reaction, and then started to stroll past. Caracal headed after her with a sheepish look. "Don't worry about it; I was the one not looking. And hey, maybe _one_ of the eggs survived this time."

Looking at the two of them, no one would've imagined them to be best friends. To be honest, Tide hadn't either. Caracal was a tall, athletic-looking bobcat with reddish-orange fur marked with black on her eartips, face, and belly, and always wore spaghetti-strap tops and baggy jeans, even in winter. Sometimes Tide wondered if her friend even knew what cold _was_ ; if she did, she didn't show it. If they were in a highscool, Caracal would've been the rough-and-tough bully who won medals in gymnastics, and Tide would've been in the top percentage of "most average people on Mobius": nothing more than another face that blended into the crowd. Yet somehow they fitted together like two pieces of a puzzle; despite the arguments, general squabbling, and occasional items being flung at each other, the two were practically inseparable.

The duo crossed a street as they chattered about their day. Tide was sick of work and considering leaving her job for something better, and as usual Caracal nodded and went "mhmmm" like she believed her friend didn't have the guts to actually do it but was supporting her anyway. Meanwhile, her response to today's "what do you even _do_?" ended up being checking out hiking trails, just in case Tide ever decided she hated herself enough to lug around a backpack on already sore legs for half an hour following someone who always forgot to actually follow the trails half the time. "You need a vacation," Caracal told her. "Working your damn legs off, what're you gonna do?"

"Like chasing you uphill is any easier on me." The cat rolled her eyes in response before the fox continued. "It'd be another thing if I was still in the racing scene." Tide sighed, and Caracal switched her bag to her other arm to rub her on the back in sympathy. "I've always been dreaming of finally winning the grand prize and taking home a trophy, but after the accident I'm even further away from making it come true than I used to be. It'd be one thing if the Arrow was in top condition, but there's still so much that needs to be repaired and replaced…"

"You've got your skates, don't you?" Caracal looked down at Tide's feet pointedly. Tide rarely ever took them off, except for work, and even then the first thing she did after changing out of her uniform was to put them back on. Unlike the models from years past, the more recent line of airskates were enough like boots for her to walk around comfortably without getting many stares. Sure, she never used them, but she was reluctant all the same. Her justification was that it would be like she was walking around stark naked without at least _something_ with her.

"Yeah, but you've never seen what using skates in the Grand Prix is like. When you're up against heavy-duty boards, motorcycles, and all that, you're just looking to get yourself flattened." She frowned. "Better handling is great and all, but you're going to spend most of your time dodging and watching your butt when you could be at the head of the pack. …Anyway, I'm not even comfortable enough with them to try them out on an official circuit. Last time I tried racing with these, I sprained my ankle, remember?"

"You're not gonna get comfortable unless you use the damn things." Caracal groaned. "Just wait til summer rolls around again and get yourself signed up in one of the city races. Or we could go hiking and you can just blaze along the trail."

"Is that even legal?"

The two reached downtown as they chatted to each other. The sky overhead was a clear blue with wisps of clouds drifting by, and the sidewalks were filled with pedestrians (both human and Mobian) on cellphones, talking to each other, hurrying along to reach destinations, and the like. Traffic was busy too, with cars racing by in the last rush hour of the day to get home from long hours at work. It was not anywhere near as hectic as the larger cities, sure, but with its famous history Station Square had evolved from a fairly sedate location to a popular hotspot. Not much had changed since the rebuilding of the city after Pefect Chaos' flood several years' prior despite that, however: The train station that gave it its name was the same as it had been years ago despite being relocated closer to the heart of the city, the ocean was serene as always, and in Tide's mind she had no regret about moving here.

She was busy enough taking in the landscape that she didn't notice Caracal had stopped until the cat grabbed her by the arm. Tide looked over her shoulder to give her an incredulous look and was met with an expression of severe worry. What? It was then that Tide noticed the atmosphere around her had changed. People were staring at their phones in disbelief, cars jolted to a stop, and lights in storefront windows flickered on and off like possessed. As one, the two turned their gazes to one such window. The TVs on display flickered with static; now and then the picture would come in clear (some news anchor lady she didn't recognize) only to be interrupted by a "please stand by" screen, or to be warped like it had been recorded on an old VCR tape. People crowded around the two to watch the display with several different flavours of horror.

A car alarm went off several blocks away and her fur stood on end. It rose into a terrifying cacophony, and suddenly her heart plummeted down into her skates as she felt something happen that shouldn't be happening. The ground was starting to move underneath her. "Earthquake!" Caracal hissed as the word was echoed around her in various levels of panic. Tide shot her a horrified look.

"Station Square hasn't had one in _years_!" She looked around at the hysteria occurring. The tremors were getting worse, and her knees threatened to buckle. "What do we do?!" Her head spun; everything had been fine a second ago, hadn't it? It was almost like nature was laughing at her for considering that everything had been perfect.

"Get to safety, duh!" Caracal took advantage of her grip on her friend's arm to tug her along. Tide's heart pounded in her ears; she hadn't lived in Station Square during the flood, but news of the catastrophe had spread across the entire continent like wildfire. What if they would be subjected to another? Even with the help of several other Zones, it had taken _years_ to fully rebuild the city. Images flash by in her mind's eye of a tidal wave rising up over the beach to engulf the city once again. ' _Don't panic. Don't panic._ ' She closed her eyes as Caracal dragged her through the chaos. ' _Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna- What is_ _ **that**_ _?!_ '

"That" was a loud humming that felt like it was coming from the centre of the city. Her fur stood on end, in response to the sound more than her overwhelming fear; something deep inside her itched like something was about to happen. She opened her eyes and looked up to see that, judging by her confused expression, Caracal was having the same feeling. What was going on? The crowd of people surrounding them took on an uneasy feeling as the noise increased in volume. Scattered memories of movies flicked through her vision: this was the kind of thing that happened before another disaster hit. Then the humming pitched up into an unbearable squeal, and she got the impression of something buckling as she dropped to her knees and clapped her hands over her ears. She could barely hear the thud of the groceries being dropped to the ground again as Caracal copied her action. More terrified screams echoed around her, and Tide found herself expecting the worst.

The earthquake had ended. A mob of people was crowded into the streets all over Station Square, herself among them, everyone suddenly dead silent. From a nearby storefront, a lady on TV was talking about the earthquake and urging everyone to stay calm and be alert for any aftershocks. Tide let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. It was over. ' _Just a freak earthquake, nothing to worry about. Welcome to Station Square, everybody, home of random natural disasters!_ ' She almost wanted to laugh from the absurdity of it; the all-consuming terror of earlier was gone just as quickly as it had come.

But why was everyone staring at the sky?

She looked up and her blood turned ice cold. Something was happening to the sky. She thought it was a trick of the light at first, or that something was obscuring her vision, but Caracal made a strangled half-noise of terror and her stomach knotted in fear. The sky had darkened, but not because of any clouds overhead: in fact, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. It was almost like an eclipse. And in the centre of the sky, above the town's centre, was something impossible-

' _No_ ,' Tide thought to herself, _'this isn't a hallucination. It's real. It's happening_.'

The sky was breaking.

It was impossible, but the cries of terror around her told her it was true. As the ground rumbled in another earthquake, the sky was broken up by hairline cracks arranged into a terrifying spiderweb that slowly spread out. Tide's vision spun as she stared up at it; everything around her seemed to shift, as if the very foundation of reality was coming out from under her feet. She wasn't sure what had been worse: the loud screech from before, or the sheer oppressive silence that now blanketed everything; she couldn't see Caracal at her side or feel the ground shaking beneath her feet once again or even register anything at all that wasn't the impossibly damaged sky.

The sky exploded outwards into thousands of glittering, gleaming, shimmering shards, like someone had punched a hole through painted glass. Everything felt like it was slowing to a crawl: the earthquake stopped like a switch had been flipped, the crowd moved like it was in slow motion, and even the explosion looked like it was being played frame-by-frame. Tide felt Caracal's hand grip her arm tighter, but it might as well have been happening to someone miles away. The precious little life she'd been living just a few minutes ago felt like it had been nothing but a fever dream.

Her eyes widened in shock (as if they weren't wide with terror already) as she saw something drifting down from the solid black hole in the sky. No, not drifting: it was speeding up, plunging earthward and out of control. It was like some kind of comet or meteor on a crash-course toward the city. Everyone around her was too busy fleeing the scene to notice it, but to Tide it was the only thing in the world that mattered right then.

As she thought back on the day, Tide would never be able to figure out what exactly possessed her in that moment to run. Run _away_ from the nightmarish hole in the sky and the object racing towards Station Square, sure, that'd be logical, and most of the crowd was scattering to do just that. But Tide was running _toward_ it, even as Caracal screamed at her "What the hell are you doing?!" as her arm wrenched itself out of the cat's tight grip, even as the crowd stampeded past her. With a click of a hastily-pressed button, her airskates came to life and she shot down the street like a bullet towards the heart of the city. The mob parted like a massive sea to clear her path. And, despite swearing at the top of the lungs and screaming that she was going to get herself killed, Caracal bounded after her.

With her emotions completely shot from the mess of reactions, Tide instead gave in to something that felt like half hysteria, half euphoria. Even with her eyes squinted against the wind, there was nothing she loved more than racing, and even if she was racing to catch a meteor instead of racing down a track the savage glee still took hold. Everyone else had fled from the area, but she rocketed ahead like it was some sort of game. The city's centre loomed ahead of her: skyscrapers towered overhead and reached toward the shattered sky. City Hall was dead ahead, placed like a diamond in the ring the skyscrapers around it formed around the plaza. A detailed mosaic sprawled across the very center of the plaza: a colourful depiction of the legendary battle that had saved the city years ago, with a plaque in front labeling it as such.

On a normal day this area would be flooded with people, but the cataclysmic event overhead had driven everyone to the shelters left over from the flood. In the wake of the earthquake, the plaza was completely deserted and as silent as a grave. As such, Tide Sanglo was the first one on the scene as the mysterious object slammed into the dead centre of the mosaic.

She braked hard just in time, but the immense shockwave caught her like a hundred-ton punch to the chest and blew her back. Caracal landed on top of her and knocked the rest of the air out of her lungs before grabbing the fox by the shirt and staring her dead in the eye. Tide had never seen Caracal like this before: the cat was wide-eyed, breathless, and shaking with fear. Caracal was, as she loved to brag, the type that could never get rattled by anything, but a sudden disaster out of the blue tends to shake up such notions. "What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?!" she wheezed out; her tone was nearly frantic, and Tide could barely hear her over the loud ringing in her ears. "Are you trying to get killed?!"

Tide's response was to gasp and wheeze, wriggle out from under her, pry off her hands, and stumble into the large impact crater. Broken tiles were scattered everywhere and crunched under her skates; the crater had hit the mosaic like a bulls-eye and left it completely unrecognizable. Caracal hovered around the edge of it, shouting and cussing her out for "being so _fucking_ _ **stupid**_ " and crying out that " _you're_ supposed to be the responsible one, for fuck's sake!". Sirens wailed faintly in the distance as the paramedics made their way to the scene of the disaster, but Tide found herself still heavily detached from reality. Instead her gaze was entirely focused on the thing in the centre of the crater: a small cyan hedgehog, surprisingly without any injuries or marks beyond the scuffed-up look of her baggy clothes.

It took the fox a moment to find her voice. "Cara- Caracal, call 911!"

"911's already here!" Caracal shot back. " _What's going on_?!"

Tide wished she knew the answer. After a moment's hesitation, she scooped the kid up into her arms and turned to face her friend. "It's a kid!"

"What?!" Caracal's eyes bugged out in what would've been comical if not for the severity of the situation. "What—Why—" She stammered a bit. "Is it hurt?"

"No!" Tide scrambled back up the side of the crater to stand next to her. Panting hard, she crouched down to gently set the hedgehog on the concrete. "They're unconscious, I think..."

Caracal dropped to one knee to check the kid over herself. "Prolly got separated from its parents..." She cocked her head to one side and perked up an ear." Ambulance is heading over by the station, sounds like. People got knocked around from the earthquake when they tried takin' shelter there. Let's carry 'em over." As Tide picked the hedgehog up again, the cat glanced back at the crater. "Find what that meteor was?"

Tide shook her head. "I only found the kid in there."

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Caracal reached over to thwack Tide on the side of the head. "Don't fuckin' do that again, okay?! Scared the goddamn _daylights_ outta me and there's not even anything to go chasin after!" Tide laughed weakly and turned to head back to the station; sure enough, several emergency vehicles had pulled up. ' _More will probably be coming this way to check out the impact site_ ,' she thought grimly. ' _But what was that meteor..?_ '

She looked up. Far above their heads, a gaping hole in reality hung suspended over Station Square. Her knees felt weak as she stared into solid blackness; the thoughts of work the next morning, of the dropped groceries, of her old racing days, and of Caracal's hiking vacation were completely gone from her mind. It was like she could fall into the void at any moment. The only thing that felt real to Tide right now was the weight of the unconscious kid in her arms as she slowly trudged toward the nearest ambulance.

It would be the first in what would become many, many strange experiences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Congrats! If you've read this far, that means you've found this story interesting enough to at least skim through.**
> 
>  
> 
> **If you think this first chapter is a mess, then yeah, it is. Things will slow down and become clearer as this fic goes on. And as much as I would've liked to have a slow build-up to this, I think it's better that I started off with a bang instead of taking a few chapters to wind up for it; you're going to find out more about everyone as we go along.**
> 
>  
> 
> **I'm not sure exactly when the next chapter is going to be up, because I'm super finicky about getting this just right and having it all pretty. To the point of the rough draft being done in a day, but the looking-over and proofreading and adding details took a few weeks. Ouch.**
> 
>  
> 
> **This isn't my first time writing a multi-chapter fic, to be honest, but it's the first one I've put serious effort into and have been planning out for years... so it's probably going to crash and burn, haha. Hopefully it'll be a fun ride if it does, hopefully it'll be an entertaining read if it doesn't.**
> 
>  
> 
> **This is set three years after Sonic Chronicles, for the record. There's more to it than that, but that'd be too much to fit into this tiny space and would probably end up giving away spoilers for _another_ fic I'm hoping to throw together.**
> 
> **And if you think the plot so far is lame or cheesy... yeah, it is. It's basically going to run through all the tropes. But at least I'm going to have fun with it!**


	2. Arrival

_"…were injured in the disaster, but there have been no casualties reported as of yet. About 30 people have been declared missing…"_

"…Hello, yes, this is Tide Sanglo? I'm calling in to say that I can't make it to work toda—Yes, I live a few blocks away from— No, I wasn't hurt by it, it was just a bad scare. What? –Oh! Thank you! I'll be sure to make up for it. I'll see you next week..."

_"…earthquakes have been occurring simultaneously all over Mobius, even directly across the world from Station Square. We're here with expert meteorologist, Dr. Brennan, to find out why…"_

"Fuckin' hell."

"Watch your mouth." Tide set the phone down and glared at Caracal. The cat was sprawled out on the couch with her legs propped up on the far armrest; at Tide's voice she twitched one ear in her direction, but didn't respond past that. Her eyes were locked on the TV, where a reporter was holding up a microphone to an important-looking guest that was rattling off a bunch of things she couldn't make heads or tails of.

With a sigh Tide retreated to the kitchen counter and set to putting away the stack of dishes from earlier in the afternoon. Ever since yesterday there had been non-stop news coverage on the earthquake, which was to be expected. There was only so many ways one could repeat the same information, though, and as such the newscaster's voice had been nothing but a drone in the background.

_"…and now for some breaking news. Station Square residents are already aware of the hole looming overhead…"_

Caracal bolted up. Tide yelped and almost dropped the plate she was holding. The newscast continued, _"…while the area is under investigation, no solid evidence has been found of what this phenomenon is or what caused it. Was it the source of the planet-wide earthquakes, or a freak coincidence? Janet Weissler is interviewing Dr. Watts, who specializes in similar strange occurrences, to hear his theories."_

Tide walked around to the back of the couch and crossed her arms over it. The TV's image had changed to a scene a couple blocks away from the city centre; behind the reporter and the person labeled as "Dr. Watts", barricades had been erected to block off the crater from any nosey civilians. As the two spoke, the camera panned up to the topic of the week and Tide felt her heart lurch. There it was, same as yesterday: a solid black hole hanging innocently in the sky, surrounded by spiderwebbed cracks and looking just as terrifying as it had looked yesterday. Clouds passed by it like it wasn't even there, and the sun shone like it was an ordinary day.

Caracal nudged her and Tide realized the scientist had been speaking. _"…while I can't pinpoint what would've caused the reaction without more information, it's entirely likely that what we have here is, to be blunt, a breach in the fabric of space-time." The reporter asked something she didn't catch. "If you remember, it was only a few years ago that first Eggman Nega, then the Mauraders invaded Mobius through similar breaches; the dimensional barrier that supposedly encapsulates Mobius could have theoretically weakened from these penetrations…"_

"This is so fucked up," Tide murmured. Caracal grunted in agreement. The fox's stomach had tied itself into a knot; apocalyptic images flashed through her mind of the hole widening to engulf Station Square and maybe all of Mobius, like something out of a horror movie. She noticed Caracal pinching herself and copied the motion; she couldn't bring herself to admit it, but she'd woken up this morning hoping that the events of yesterday had been nothing more than a nightmare. Yet the brief pain told her otherwise.  
This was real. This was happening. And she wanted no part of it.

_"…the city centre has been closed off for safety reasons, but as soon as the Guardian Unit of Nations allows myself and my team inside we will see if this crater has any connection to this anomaly. If an otherworldly artifact has traveled through the breach, then we are several steps closer to discovering the root of this phenomenon."_

"There wasn't anything in the crater, though," Tide muttered. "Just that kid."

"They don't know that." Caracal looked up at Tide and frowned a little. "What was it doing there, anyway? Kids are dumb shits, but they're not dumb enough to run right into a falling meteor. Like some people I know." She stressed the last sentence with an expression that showed she still hadn't forgiven Tide for her actions. Tide didn't respond; her gaze was fixed on the TV, which had panned back up to show the breach again, but her mind was elsewhere.

She had fended off the worried questions about her own health and safety and offered the kid, explaining that she didn't know where their parents were and had found them unconscious. With the city in crisis mode, the paramedics hadn't pressed further, and had taken the kid into their care with the promises of finding their parents and returning them home safe. But even as Tide had passed the kid into their arms, she had a nagging feeling of doubt. Somehow they had been completely uninjured, even though they'd been at the middle of a crater… and what had been the meteor? There'd been nothing else in the crater, unless she overlooked it.

A loud knocking jolted her out of her thoughts. "I'LL GET IT!" Caracal shouted uncomfortably close to her ear before launching herself off the couch and over to the door. Tide paused a moment in confusion, then swiped the remote off the couch cushion and clicked the TV off. 'Who the heck would be wanting to see us?' She leaned over to try and catch a glimpse, but the door was out of sight and she couldn't risk wandering over without catching Caracal's attention. Maybe it was one of her friends? It would explain why she'd been so eager to answer it, at least, and in the chaos of yesterday it probably slipped her mind to tell her.

Oh, right. Hadn't she been checking out hiking trails yesterday? Even if Tide was reluctant about the idea, there was no doubt that Caracal's group of friends would be interested in a trailblazing adventure. Especially if it involved actual blazing, like it usually did with the cat involved. Despite her worry, the corners of Tide's mouth perked up in a slight smile. Caracal was talking, but she couldn't make out exactly what was being said; at the very least she wasn't shouting or making a fuss, so certainly it couldn't be too bad.

She wandered over to the kitchen and leaned over the countertop. "Hey, Cara! If that's Kennett, let him in."

"What, your boytoy?" Caracal shot back. Tide leaned over further to catch a glimpse of her roommate looking over her shoulder. "No, he's out of town for a few days—C'mere, I want you to see this guy."

"What?" Tide raised an eyebrow, but listened all the same. Caracal moved aside as she approached. Confused, the fox glanced down to meet a familiar face.

"'Allo!"

Tide's eyes widened. It was the hedgehog from yesterday. She couldn'tve been much older than 13 or 14, although her size, coupled with the ill-fitting t-shirt, shorts, and loose scarf almost made her think otherwise. Her cyan spines were messy and swept back and up like she'd been caught in a windstorm with a few long bangs that looked unkempt, and a band-aid was plastered to one of her freckled cheeks, but asides from that she looked completely fine for someone that'd been found in a meteor crash site. She adjusted the purple-lensed goggles on her forehead and then bowed cheerfully, like a little kid being grateful to a stranger.

Which she was, Tide guessed, and quickly confirmed as the kid spoke. "S'wanted t'say thank ya fer rescuin' me!" She held out a gloved hand to shake and Tide took it. Something about her accent made her raise an eyebrow a little; it certainly wasn't a dialect from anywhere near Station Square. "Was wonderin if—" The girl's expression suddenly blanked. Tide opened her mouth to ask a question, but gasped instead as the kid wobbled and fell into her arms. A worried look over proved her to simply be unconscious.

"What is she, narcoleptic?" Caracal raised both eyebrows. Tide shrugged helplessly, picked the girl up, and brought her inside. Caracal closed the door behind them. "Didn't even give us a name and just fuckin' faints on our doorstep."

"It's not her fault." Tide set the girl down on the couch. "She's probably still in shock from yesterday… Like us."

"Mhmmm." Caracal frowned and flicked her short tail from side to side. "Should we call her parents?"

"Not until after she wakes up; we don't even know who her parents are." Tide sighed and ran a hand through her bangs. "At least I've got today off from work."

"Yeah, that's good." Caracal perched on an armrest and rested her head in one hand. "What a weird kid."

"I think she's the least of our problems."

Caracal grunted in agreement. Tide rummaged through the closet to retrieve a blanket that she draped over the unconscious hedgehog, then ran a hand through her bangs and sighed. "At least she's alright, minus the fainting."

"Mhmm." Caracal side-eyed the remote. "What a weird kid." She paused for a moment. "Hey, Tide. Did you see her eyes?"

"Hm? No, I wasn't paying attention." Tide raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

The cat shook her head. "You'll see when she wakes up, I guess. Gave me the willies."

Tide chuckled a little at Caracal's phrasing, then turned to face the stairs. She shot a look over her shoulder. "I'm going to go nap, okay? If she wakes up, you can call me down. And keep the TV low, okay?"

Caracal grumbled; Tide had caught a glance of the remote in her hand. "Alright, _Mom_. Have fun."

Tide stuck her tongue out and tramped upstairs. Her joking mood faded as she crossed the threshold to her room, however. All she had to do was move to the window and push the curtains aside to be able to squint up at the sky and catch a glimpse of the inexplicable … what had the TV called it? The breach. It hung in the air like a dark omen. Tide frowned and shut the curtains, then collapsed onto her bed without even changing clothes. Uneasy thoughts floated through her head, same as this morning.

What had happened to Station Square, and why had she gotten herself involved? Thankfully no one had seen her at the crash site (she wouldn't be able to stay calm long enough for an interview), but the fact still remained that she had been there. She had seen with her own eyes the glowing object plummeting towards her, and she had been the one to rush to the crater and find that strange girl that was now asleep on her couch downstairs.

Tide rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Her memories of the event were a fear-coloured blur, but yet somehow one fact stood out to her that she couldn't believe she had previously overlooked. The plaza had been completely empty when she arrived; it had already been evacuated in fear of a potential flood. And it's hard to miss someone standing in a big empty area, even with her eyes trained on the meteor as it fell. And even if, somehow, someone else had been there, the shock of the collision had sent her flying; someone dead-centre in the blast would be suffering from more beyond just some scrapes.

Her heart lurched. Where had the girl come from?

There was a rap on the door and Tide bolted upright. A confused look at the clock on her dresser showed that a lot more time had passed than she thought; had she fallen asleep somewhere in the middle of that? Either way, she dragged herself out of bed and opened the door to meet Caracal's worried look.

"Yo, you told me to wake you, so." Caracal shifted her weight from foot to foot as she spoke. "The kid's awake."

Tide hurried downstairs with Caracal in her wake. Sure enough, the spiky wonder was sitting up on the couch looking dazed. The fox did her best to hide her misgivings as she approached and sat down next to her. "You alright, kiddo?"

"Yea." The kid rubbed her head and squeezed one eye shut in discomfort. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Hey, it's no big deal." Caracal leaned over the back of the couch. "Looks like we saved your bacon again, though."

The girl laughed, and Tide felt some of her worries ease. "I didn't get to introduce myself," Tide said. "I'm Tide, and this is Caracal. What's your name?"

The hedgehog's expression blanked out again, and for a worrisome moment Tide was afraid she was going to faint again. In retrospect, she wasn't sure if that was better or worse than the answer she got. "Don't got one. Don't 'member."

Caracal's eyebrows looked about to fly off her face. "Don't got one? C'mon, you're joshing us."

The hedgehog shrugged and Tide felt her heart plummet again. "Don't got one." She rapped the side of her head with one knuckle. "Ain't got no memories either."

Tide hide her dismay remarkably well. "You don't remember anything?"

The girl nodded in response. Caracal groaned and buried her head in the couch cushion. Tide was a bit more diplomatic.

"How about your parents?" she prodded. "The medics took you home, right?"

She shook her head. Great. "Dunno where is. 'N they were so busy wif' the quake that they jus' let me go free 'cause I wasn't hurt none."

"Mm." Tide leaned against the couch's armrest. "Well, how about this—you've got nowhere to go, so why don't you stay with us until your memory comes back?"

Caracal made a strangled coughing noise that, thankfully, the kid overlooked. The kid's expression brightened. "Really?"

"Yeah." Tide contemplated ruffling the kid's head, but eyed her messy-yet-sharp spines and thought better of it. "You're still going to need a name, though, we can't just keep calling you 'kid'." _'Even though Caracal will keep doing it anyway,'_ she thought to herself with a glance toward her friend. The hedgehog responded by pulling out a pair of dogtags on a chain around her neck that had been hidden by her shirt. Tide and Caracal leaned over to get a better look at what was written on it.

"Super… Katie?" Caracal muttered. "What the f— er, uh." She cut her curse short thanks to a warning look from Tide. "Where'd you get those?"

"Iunno." Caracal slapped her forehead in response, but Tide noted internally that she really should've seen it coming.

"Well, it's the best we've got." Tide shrugged. "How about 'SK', for short?"

The newly-named SK grinned in glee. Caracal reached over and tapped Tide on the shoulder, and she suddenly remembered her friend's earlier comment. She nonchalantly made eye contact with SK, then froze as a chill ran down her spine.

 _'Her eyes…'_  
On first glance, SK's eyes were perfectly normal. No reptilian pupils, no black sclera, nothing that would be out of the ordinary. Except for one thing. Her pupils were solid white, making it look like she only had a ring-shaped purple iris. It was unnerving. Tide had seen a lot of strange people since she moved to Station Square, but this mysterious kid definitely took the cake.

SK tilted her head to one side questioningly, and Tide realized she'd been staring at her somewhat creepily. "Nevermind," she mumbled. "You'll have to bunk down here, there's only room for Caracal and I upstairs."

SK shrugged, seemingly okay with this. Her thoughts cloudy, Tide got to her feet and wandered off to nowhere in particular.

The mystery of SK was one that Tide would be stuck on for a long time, for better or for worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Wow, it's been a month. Sorry about that. I had the rough draft of this sitting on my harddrive while I was busy with school and depression, and was only able to bust it out today to complete it.**
> 
> **Writing SK is a pain in the ass. It'd be really easy to make her super obnoxious, or like an overpowered self-insert, or just annoying. Honestly I'm not pleased with her introduction here, but now that she at least has a name to her face and the beginnings of a mystery things can finally get rolling. Hopefully she'll be at least somewhat likable once there's more to her than just "weird kid Tide found".**
> 
> **Everyone is still in that weird awkward phase where I'm trying to get used to writing them while also working out "show don't tell". It's going to take a few chapters before it smoothes out.**


	3. Yes, No, Maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Disclaimer: Seeing as he gets a fair amount of mentions this time, Netro belongs to Netro the Hedgehog. So does Kennett, who got mentioned last chapter and I forgot about._
> 
> _Unfortunately I don't think they'll have a speaking appearance, but we'll see. We'll see._
> 
> _Everyone else so far belongs to yours truly._

"Okay, up and at em." Tide shook SK's shoulder gently before heading into the kitchen. The hedgehog yawned and rubbed at her eyes before sitting upright on the couch. As always, Tide shot her a worried look that soon relaxed when SK swung her legs over the edge of the couch and hopped to her feet with ease.

It had been a week since SK had been unofficially adopted into the weird mess that was Tide and Caracal's life. Despite a few rough patches in the beginning—mostly with Caracal involved—she'd gotten along fairly well with everything and was quick to relearn things she'd lost thanks to her amnesia. As for Tide, she'd been keeping a close track on SK's progress in the hopes of something coming back to her: a proper name, where she was from, even something insignificant like a band she liked or an embarrassing moment from school. So far, there was no luck. SK was like a completely blank slate as far as her memory was concerned; when asked, the most she could dredge up was waking up in the crowded hospital after the earthquake.

"For Iblis' sake," Caracal grumbled as she tramped downstairs. "Could barely frikkin' sleep last night again." (At Tide's insistence, she'd toned down her language in front of SK; she was only fourteen, after all, and when wound up Cara could make a sailor blush.) Tide leaned around to get a good look as her roommate strode over to the couch and plopped down into it with a cross look on her face. SK didn't notice her approach, and instead she wandered into the kitchen to give Tide a light punch on the hip. The fox rolled her eyes.

"I have no idea why Cara taught you that. Okay, hold on." Still keeping a careful watch on Caracal's mood, Tide rummaged through the cupboards for the brand of cereal that SK at least seemed to enjoy more than the last one they'd tried. SK watched her patiently before grabbing the filled bowl and scurrying over to the table to eat. With that taken care of, Tide sat down next to Caracal and patted her on the shoulder. "You holding up alright?" she said softly.

Caracal rested her head in her hand. "Hell no," she muttered in reply. "Kid keeps screamin' every night, it feels like. Surprised you sleep through it."

Tide looked away and felt a tad uncomfortable. "I don't want to bring it up to her again. You saw how she reacted last time."

"You're gonna have to again eventually." Caracal closed her eyes with a grunt. "For all we know, it could be important." The cat rolled her shoulders and leaned against the back of the couch, then turned her head to look at her friend with half-lidded eyes. "I was talking to Netro last time he was in town." Her voice was suddenly quieter, and Tide's ears perked up. "Said she might be from the islands somewhere."

Tide's eyes widened a little. "Like you are?"

She shook her head. "Further south. He said he knows a guy that knows the Roe family—they look like her." Caracal shrugged. "Light blue, purple eyes, all of that runs in their family. I'd eat my tail if she wasn't related."

Tide slumped into the couch with relief. Finally, a lead to the origins of their mysterious friend had surfaced. "Does Netro know if anyone went missing around there?" Her heart dropped as Caracal shook her head, but the cat quickly held up a hand to stop her.

"He's gonna look into it for me." Caracal hesitated, then held Tide's gaze. "What're you gonna do if she isn't?"

Tide opened her mouth, stopped, then looked over her shoulder at where SK was sitting. The hedgehog had finished breakfast, and had drawn her legs up into her chair. Judging by the quiet music and sound effects, she had her GBA out again and was playing it with that kind of intense focus that normally Tide only saw on Caracal's face when she was playing Mario Kart. Tide sighed and ran a hand through her hair—a motion that had become fairly common since she started dealing with SK's oddness.

"I don't know. Keep looking, I guess." She sighed deeply. "She can't have just come from nowhere, you know? Even if … if this lead doesn't go anywhere, we're at least getting a little closer."

Caracal wrapped an arm over her shoulders in a rare moment of comfort. Tide leaned against her and struggled to stifle a yawn; Caracal caught the action, though, and scrutinized her. "…You didn't actually sleep, did you?"

"No." Tide winced. "I'm so wound up over this, and then I heard her yelling…"

Caracal frowned in sympathy. "You need to talk to her. It's not normal."

"She's probably just still shaken up from the earthquake," Tide said lamely. Caracal didn't look convinced, and gave her a gentle shove back upright. "And you know she hates having it brought up. Whatever those dreams are, they terrify her."

"And they could be a lead, too." Again Caracal made eye contact, but Tide broke it off. "We need to keep askin' the kid things if we're gonna get anywhere with this damn thing."

"Yeah. You're right." Tide got to her feet and sighed. "I'll… do it later."

Later came faster than Tide would like. SK had curled up to nap on the couch, and the two older teenagers had taken spots in front of the TV to battle each other in a multiplayer game. Tide would have to commend Caracal later; despite her obvious frustration at Tide's winning streak, she'd kept silent. The only sign that she wasn't taking it calmly was her expression of pure silent fury and the suddenly forceful button-presses.

Tide was almost certain that the cat would throw her controller through the TV before a sudden sound caught both of their attentions (and sent Tide's character stumbling off the edge of the arena, winning Caracal a point). They looked at each other in confusion, and then Tide jumped to her feet and spun around. SK had curled up tighter and grabbed her head in her sleep; the hedgehog's expression was distressed, and she was shaking all over like she'd been left out in the cold. Tide and Caracal exchanged glances again; Caracal mouthed "nightmare" right before SK started screaming.

Tide flinched at the noise and fluffed up before quickly shaking SK awake. As had been the case the first few times this had happened, she was weakly punched at in response before SK came to her senses and opened her eyes. "It's okay," Tide whispered comfortingly. "I'm here, and everything's okay." She caught the pile of blankets Caracal slung in her direction and carefully bundled up the hedgehog; SK didn't resist, instead staring off into space like she tended to do after waking up from her nightmares. Things were quiet for a while: the TV continued to play the game's music while it was left idle, sure, but no one said a thing as they sat together.

Caracal broached the subject this time. "Nightmares again?" SK blanched and disappeared into the blankets as she curled up. Caracal sighed and prodded at the blanket pile; Tide watched with concern. "C'mon, you're not helpin' anybody by hidin' away like that, you lil shit. What happened this time?"

Tide leaned over and caught a glimpse of SK staring back at her through a gap in the blankets. "Yeh," she mumbled quietly. "Nightmare." Tide was almost certain she would stop there like she usually did, but to her surprise SK continued. "S'dark as always. Cold." She hesitated. "Big monster." With that, she curled up again. Tide waited patiently, but that seemed to be the end of that line of discussion.

Big monster? Tide frowned a little. She _knew_ she shouldn'tve let SK stay downstairs while Caracal was binging on B-movies… But it wasn't likely those were connected, considering SK had had a nightmare the very first night she had stayed here. Maybe she just believed the earthquake to be caused by a huge monster; she was immature enough to do that, for certain. Her fear of the dark was well-documented by now, too, so that part wasn't too surprising; they had quickly learned to buy and install a night-light downstairs to keep her content. Cold was an unusual addition, though; SK enjoyed cool, breezy weather, even when Caracal complained the entire time about it, and had sounded excited when Caracal mentioned her friends were considering dragging her up north near Holoska for a get-together she was less than pleased about (and had practically begged to be taken along until Tide talked her out of it). Why would she be afraid of cold?

She shook herself out of her thoughts. Whatever the deal behind SK's nightmares was, right now the poor kid needed some cheering up. Some cocoa should do the trick. Tide indicated Caracal to stay as she left to prepare it; she sneaked glances at the two as she did, and noticed Caracal lean in to talk softly to the kid. With a small smile now on her face, she set the steaming mug down on the table and sat on the other side of the girl. SK emerged from the blankets enough to snatch the mug, and to Tide's relief was looking gleeful about the treat.

She was speaking before thinking about it. "Does the name 'Roe' ring any bells? Last name." Caracal shot Tide a look of 'Oh Iblis no', but it was too late—she'd caught SK's attention. "Like… I dunno." Tide thought a moment. "What if your name was Katie Roe?"

SK was quiet as she drank her cocoa with a thoughtful look on her face. "I like SK better."

"You're gonna have to be more direct," Caracal muttered in Tide's direction. Tide sighed.

"What I'm trying to say is… We think we might've found your family, maybe," she said carefully.

SK's eyes widened, and Tide was worried she was going to drop her mug. Instead she gently set it down, then whirled around to face the fox with wide eyes. "Really-?!"  
"We **think** so," Caracal cut in. "We're lookin' into it, and don't get your hopes up too high, but…" She groaned at the excited look in SK's eyes. "Now you've gone and done it, Tide."

"I'm not going to keep it a secret from her," Tide mouthed. Caracal grunted. Out loud, she said, "We'll let you know when we find out more, okay? And—" She hesitated. "—and you're always welcome here, even once you're back with your family."

Tide oofed as SK tackled her and wrapped her arms around her waist. Blankets went flying everywhere around the couch, and Caracal disentangled herself from them. Not sure what else to do, Tide patted SK between the ears and smiled a little. "Everything'll be fine, just wait and see. Okay?"

"Okay." SK looked up at her. "Can ya game wif' me now?"

"You're getting her hopes up," Caracal muttered. Tide looked up from where she was changing into her pajamas and squinted at her friend. "We don't even know if we've got the right people, but you told her anyway."

"I'm not going to keep it a secret from her," Tide repeated. "She deserves to know."

"Tide—" Caracal looked about to say something, thought better of it, then turned to walk away. She paused as she grabbed the door, then looked over her shoulder. "…Tide, if she's from the islands, how the fuck did she get to Station Square in the middle of an earthquake?"

Tide realized she didn't have an answer. Caracal waited, then closed the door and left the fox alone with her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ew, it feels like the chapters are getting shorter and shorter the more I write. Not good. Then again, this chapter was a little rushed, but I think I hit all the points I wanted to with this one.**
> 
> **Things should start getting more interesting next chapter. Looks like I ended up with a slow starting fic after all! I wanted to explore the trio's relationship a little bit before things started getting hectic, though. After all, they're the main characters, they deserve to have more to em beyond just being vehicles for plot. Even if sometimes SK comes off that way.**
> 
>  
> 
> **This came out pretty fast compared to the month-long wait between chapters one and two, but nothing really plot-important really comes up here beyond the introduction of the Roes. I can say with confidence that you'll see where that leads next chapter, at least! Honestly, this chapter feels a lot like padding to me, but like I said I needed to explore the trio a little and I'd like a breather before the mess that will probably be next chapter.**
> 
> **Or I could end up accidentally lying and chapter four ends up being another breather chapter. After all, I wasn't really planning this one until I wrote it.**

**Author's Note:**

> **Congrats! If you've read this far, that means you've found this story interesting enough to at least skim through.**
> 
> **If you think this first chapter is a mess, then yeah, it is. Things will slow down and become clearer as this fic goes on. And as much as I would've liked to have a slow build-up to this, I think it's better that I started off with a bang instead of taking a few chapters to wind up for it; you're going to find out more about everyone as we go along.**
> 
> **I'm not sure exactly when the next chapter is going to be up, because I'm super finicky about getting this just right and having it all pretty. To the point of the rough draft being done in a day, but the looking-over and proofreading and adding details took a few weeks. Ouch.**
> 
> **This isn't my first time writing a multi-chapter fic, to be honest, but it's the first one I've put serious effort into and have been planning out for years... so it's probably going to crash and burn, haha. Hopefully it'll be a fun ride if it does, hopefully it'll be an entertaining read if it doesn't.**
> 
> **This is set three years after Sonic Chronicles, for the record. There's more to it than that, but that'd be too much to fit into this tiny space and would probably end up giving away spoilers for _another_ fic I'm hoping to throw together.**
> 
> **And if you think the plot so far is lame or cheesy... yeah, it is. It's basically going to run through all the tropes. But at least I'm going to have fun with it!**


End file.
